Filipino Students Awarded with 2022 McDonald’s/APIA Scholarship

In addition to gathering students, celebrities and thought leaders for the APA Next Summit this weekend, McDonald’s is also announcing this year’s APIA Scholarship recipients. The Asian Pacific American community is vast, with multiple ethnicities, languages and identities that are often lumped together. The misconception that APAs are a monolithic group is a dangerous notion that causes many Asian subsegments to be overlooked, particularly when it comes to financial aid.

To ensure APA students can pursue their academic dreams, especially those from underrepresented Asian subsegments, McDonald’s and APIA Scholars, the leading non-profit organization focused on college scholarships for Asian Pacific Americans in the U.S., joined forces to create the McDonald’s/ APIA Scholarship in 2019. Since its inception in 2019, the McDonald’s/ APIA Scholarship has awarded over $2M to 150+ underserved Asian Pacific American students from diverse underrepresented Asian subsegments.

The following are this year’s Filipino scholarship recipients:

Ava Amparo Anderson from Norfolk, VA attending North Carolina State University

Ilia Pavel Rezucha from Alameda, CA attending San Francisco State University

Jacob Anthony Olaguir from Albuquerque, NM attending University of New Mexico

John Gabriel Espinas Flora from Saipan, CNMI attending University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Joshua Uy from Dededo, GU attending Santa Monica College

Raechelle Audrey Aguinaldo Pidone from Olympia, WA attending Whitworth University

Ryah Abang from Ewa Beach, HI attending Grand Canyon University

Ysabel David from Berkeley, CA attending Scripps College

Half Filipino and half White, Ava Anderson is passionate about the disparities for minorities in mental health, particularly in medical research and strives to erase the stigma by increasing minority awareness in STEM. She is available to speak with you about her personal experiences, interests and how the scholarship has affected her life. Please confirm your interest by the end of this week.